Whether grasping, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing – in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. The human hand is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more logical than equipping robots in collaborative working spaces with a gripper that is modelled on this natural model and can learn through artificial intelligence to solve a wide variety of gripping and turning tasks? BionicSoftHand uses the method of reinforcement learning – learning by strengthening. This means that instead of having to imitate a concrete action, the hand is merely given a goal.

As the division between manual production work performed by humans and automated work handled by robots and other equipment becomes less concrete, an array of new tools is coming to market to facilitate this burgeoning flexibility. Within the past year, we've reported on the introduction of the Mate exoskeleton--a wearable robotic technology designed to assist human shoulder movement in production operations, and FT-Produktion's use of the RG2 double gripper to provide a single robot arm with two "hands" for parts feeding. Now, we've learned that Festo has developed a Bionic SoftHand and Bionic SoftArm--pneumatic robot technologies designed to extend human capabilities into the automation realm. According to Festo, the fingers of the BionicSoftHand "consist of flexible bellows structures with air chambers. The bellows are enclosed in the fingers by a special 3D textile coat knitted from high-strength elastic threads. This makes it light, flexible, adaptable and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces."

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Impressive new video of MIT's Mini Cheetah doing backflips, and failing to do backflips, which is even cuter. MIT'S new mini cheetah robot is the first four-legged robot to do a backflip.

Whether it's grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing -- in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modelled after this model of nature, that solves various tasks by learning through artificial intelligence? Festo will be showing off the pneumatic robot hand BionicSoftHand at Hanover Fair 2019. Combined with the BionicSoftArm, a pneumatic lightweight robot, these Future Concepts are suitable for human-robot collaboration.

Whether it's grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing -- in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity, and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modeled after this example from nature and solves various tasks by learning with artificial intelligence? Festo's Bionic series does just that. Festo announced that it will show its BionicSoftHand pneumatic robot hand at Hannover Messe 2019.

In a split second before you reach to pick up an object, your brain pre-calculates all the movements needed to safely reach and grasp it securely. It's a subconscious approach that's the result of years of childhood development and learning, and one that robotics researchers are now using for their own creations. Festo's new BionicSoftHand is not only remarkably dextrous, but using AI, it figures out how to properly hold and manipulate an object before it makes any actual movements. The BionicSoftHand is yet another creation that takes the'soft' approach to robotics. The robots you see moving heavy parts around in a factory are made of steel and pneumatic components that make them strong and fast, but not very forgiving.

In a split second before you reach to pick up an object, your brain pre-calculates all the movements needed to safely reach and grasp it securely. It's a subconscious approach that's the result of years of childhood development and learning, and one that robotics researchers are now using for their own creations. Festo's new BionicSoftHand is not only remarkably dextrous, but using AI, it figures out how to properly hold and manipulate an object before it makes any actual movements. The BionicSoftHand is yet another creation that takes the'soft' approach to robotics. The robots you see moving heavy parts around in a factory are made of steel and pneumatic components that make them strong and fast, but not very forgiving.